Uttar Pradesh: Cow smuggling syndicate busted, 5 held

Meerut (Uttar Pradesh) [India], April 15 : The security forces have busted a syndicate of cow smuggling and held five accused from Uttar Pradesh on April 12.
The accused used to smuggle cows from various states and supply them to Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram as well as Bangladesh. Assam police had announced a reward of Rs two lakhs on accused Akbar Banjara.
Special Operations Group (SOG) and Falawada police acted on inputs of April 11, held two accused Babukha and Ranjit, and recovered 2 cows and cutting tools from them. Whereas, accused Akbar Banjara and Iqbal escaped from the spot.
A police official said, "On April 12, after inputs of informers from Meerut, Akbar, Salman and Sameem were held and taken into custody. During the interrogation, the three accused disclosed that they used to smuggle cattle from different states and take it to Assam from where it was smuggled to Bangladesh."
The official added, "They have two cases registered against them in this regard at Kokrajhar Police station in Assam under various acts of the Prevention of Cruelty to Animal Act. Since then the accused Akbar and Salman are operating out of the state and transactions worth crores have been done by the accused."
The accused further disclosed to the police that there are two big syndicates involved in cattle smuggling, in which one syndicate is run by Ravi Reddy and the other is run by himself.
Detailed information about the criminal history and property and associates of Akbar and Salman is being done from Assam.